Revival (Fantastique)

by Stephen King

[Katie King]

**2 Stars**

I usually really enjoy Stephen King novels. I already like mystery and horror novels, and I remember staying up late when I was about 14 just to finish Carrie because I was SO hooked. Maybe I wouldn't enjoy Carrie as much now, or in the same way, but I've been exposed to so many of King's stories, I figured I could always rely on them. So when I was bored and at the grocery store in podunk northern Michigan while camping, it seemed obvious to pick up Revival to carry me through the shitty rainstorms we were having. The only problem is, I didn't enjoy it.

The story follows the relationship between the protagonist, Jamie Morton, and the new pastor on the block Charlie Jacobs, all the way from when they first meet to one of their deaths. Jamie is just a little boy when he first meets Charlie, but he soon becomes good friends with him. Family tragedy rips Jacobs apart, and sets him on a path that Jamie happens to pop in on every decade or so. Some might say it was fate throwing them together, time after time. Jacobs becomes increasingly unhinged as the years go by, culminating in some weird, creepy shit at the very end.

That might sound really interesting to you; it did to me. But the main problem is that the plot is completely boring. A solid first quarter of the book takes place when the two first meet and goes up to and including Jacobs' family tragedy and aftereffects. That part was okay, but I kept waiting for more. It read like a memoir of Jamie's early years. I just figured maybe it had a slow start and the rest would be better. Once Jacobs left town, I thought, "This is it. Only up from here." I was wrong.

While the next 70% was still technically interesting (maybe I was even forcing myself to consider it interesting), I still kept waiting for the big moment. The part where I was so excited I didn't want to put the book down. It never happened. It just followed Jamie as he was a drug addict, then found Jacobs again, then became clean and moved on, then found Jacobs again, then moved on, then found Jacobs again, et cetera. Just the same cycle over and over again. Snoozefest. Several times I questioned why I was continuing to read this book.

The other problem is that it has almost no horror/thriller/paranormal component. I have no idea what people are thinking when they tag this book as such. For almost the entire book, I thought I was being lead to believe that Jacobs was a fraud, that everyone was healed psychologically or they were planted in the audience. That might actually be interesting (although not what I would expect from Stephen King). Then get to that last 5% and apparently he's been actually healing people the whole time?? Don't even get me started on all the random crap that went down at the very end with Mary Fay, because that was SO FORCED.

I was just very disappointed. If the paranormal component had been introduced from the beginning, and I had believed it from the beginning, maybe this would have been a better book. But this was just the memoir of a washed-up minor league rock star addicted to heroin and how he became a doormat to a crazy ex-pastor that can apparently communicate with the devil, except without all the interesting parts you would expect. Less communicating with the devil, more internet research and working in a recording studio. Like I created my "disappointing" shelf specifically for this book...